Horrible nerve pain

08-15-2018, 10:14 PM

I?m currently taking Gabapentin 1200 3 times a day baclofen 20 mg three times Cymbalta 30 mg three times a day and Oxy every four hours. The nerve pain is still horrible. Just tried acupuncture for the first time out of desperation. Nothing seems to help. Any advice or suggestions? I?m willing to try anything at this point.

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I?m currently taking Gabapentin 1200 3 times a day baclofen 20 mg three times Cymbalta 30 mg three times a day and Oxy every four hours. The nerve pain is still horrible. Just tried acupuncture for the first time out of desperation. Nothing seems to help. Any advice or suggestions? I?m willing to try anything at this point.

Unfortunately my experience has been that after taking all of the meds you are, and much more (as well as having my hardware removed and a spinal cord stimulator implanted)....nothing helps. And I say that about the meds because I eventually got off all of them to see what the difference would be (its been a few years now) and turns out it's about the same. The good news is I don't have to deal with the side effects of all that medication anymore. The only thing that helps with pain is distraction, so I stay busy.

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Hoffman, please complete your profile. It is difficult to put your questions in context without knowing if you have a SCI/D, your age, gender, and location. Thanks!

(KLD)

The SCI-Nurses are advanced practice nurses specializing in SCI/D care. They are available to answer questions, provide education, and make suggestions which you should always discuss with your physician/primary health care provider before implementing. Medical diagnosis is not provided, nor do the SCI-Nurses provide nursing or medical care through their responses on the CareCure forums.

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My wife is a T9 incomplete. Her pain has been ramping up the last few months. She uses Med MJ, and a TENS machine. By mistake we discovered an odd but effective thing.

As I understand the TENS machine - it basically creates neurologic white noise so the brain doesn't hear the pain signals.

Before her tumor was removed, she would ask me to flex her toes back to stop her pain. We thought it odd, and funny, but it worked!

I'm not sure how we figured this out, but if I slap the bottoms of her feet SHE LOVES IT. Not in a masochist way (I knew your mind would go there). Not too hard, but harder than I would if she didn't champion harder. Then I scratch down her feet with my fingernails. Then slap a few times, then scratch,... on and on. This seems to short circuit her pain & in short order she's without pain. The slapping wouldn't bother my feet - but the scratching would put me thru the ceiling.

With the thought lately that distracting the brain is the key (have you seen the video's of Drs that distract children & give them a shot with little fuss?), we'e going to keep playing with this.